Gallery Title
Gallery Title
Tibetan Axe
Accession Number NWHRM : 3071
Description
A Tibetan ceremonial axe with a steel tube handle increasing in gauge from a small finial to a rounded shoulder which attaches to a brass sphere with 3 cup shapes, from which project a semi-circular steel axe head opposite a pierced stupa-shaped brass mace head and an identical mace head aligned with the handle, the whole creating a trefoil effect.
Read MoreTibetan Axe
This is the kind of object that Arthur Hadow and other officers collected as souvenirs whilst on the 'Political Mission' or invasion into Tibet with Col Younghusband. This ceremonial axe is probably one of the items Arthur Hadow describes as 'various odds and ends but nothing of particular value beyond being curiosities' which he found towards the end of his search of the fort at Tuna. Looting was frowned upon and was, at this date illegal, but it certainly went on. However, some buildings were clearly out of bounds. Hadow wrote to his mother 'The regular temples of the Tibetans contain some magnificent things but we are not allowed to loot them of course'.
